The thirty-three anonymous Homeric Hymns celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient Greek hymns, "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter— dactylic hexameter— as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly A hymn is a type of Song, usually religious specifically written for the purpose of praise adoration or Prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities Dactylic Hexameter (also known as "heroic hexameter" is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme The Iliad ( Greek: Ἰλιάς (Ancient Ιλιάδα (Modern is together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient The Odyssey ( Greek: Ὀδύσσεια or Odússeia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. They were uncritically attributed to Homer himself in Antiquity—from the earliest written reference to them, Thucydides (iii. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Thucydides ( C 460 BC &ndash C 395 BC) ( Greek Θουκυδίδης Thoukydídēs) was a Greek 104)—and the label has stuck. "the whole collection, as a collection, is Homeric in the only useful sense that can be put upon the word;" A. W. Verrall noted in 1894,^[1] "that is to say, it has come down labeled as 'Homer' from the earliest times of Greek book-literature. "

The oldest of the Hymns were written in the seventh century BCE, somewhat later than Hesiod and the usually accepted date for the writing down of the Homeric epics. Hesiod ( Greek: Hesiodos) was an early Greek Poet and Rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BCE This still places the older Homeric hymns among the oldest monuments of Greek literature; but although most of them were composed in the seventh and sixth centuries, a few may be Hellenistic, and the Hymn to Ares might be a late pagan work, inserted when it was observed that a hymn to Ares was lacking. Greek literature refers to those writings autochthonic to the areas of Greek influence typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects throughout the This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Walter Burkert has suggested that the Hymn to Apollo, attributed by an ancient source to Cynaethus of Chios (a member of the Homeridae), was composed in 522 BCE for performance at the unusual double festival held by Polycrates of Samos to honour Apollo of Delos and of Delphi. Cynaethus or Cinaethus (Κιναιθος or Κυναιθος of Chios was a Rhapsode, a member of the Homeridae, sometimes said to have composed The Homeridae were a family clan or professional lineage claiming descent from the legendary Greek epic poet Homer. Polycrates (Πολυκράτης son of Aeaces, was the Tyrant of Samos from c The island of Delos ( Greek: Δήλος Dhilos) isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos Delphi ( Greek,) ( pronounce and dialectal forms) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western ^[2]

The hymns, which must be the remains of a once more strongly represented genre, vary widely in length, some being as brief as three or four lines, while others are in excess of five hundred lines. The long ones comprise an invocation, praise, and narrative, sometimes quite extended. In the briefest ones, the narrative element is lacking. The longer ones show signs of having been assembled from pre-existing disparate materials.

Most surviving Byzantine manuscripts begin with the third Hymn. A chance discovery in Moscow, 1777, recovered the two hymns that open the collection, the fragmentary To Dionysus and To Demeter, in a single fifteenth century manuscript. Some at least of the shorter ones may be excerpts that have omitted the narrative central section, preserving only the useful invocation and introduction,^[3] which a rhapsode]] could employ in the manner of a prelude. In Classical Greece, in the fifth and fourth centuries BC and perhaps earlier a rhapsode (ῥαψῳδός was a professional Performer of Poetry, especially

The thirty-three hymns praise most of the major gods of Greek mythology; at least the shorter ones may have served as preludes to the recitation of epic verse at festivals by professional rhapsodes: often the singer concludes by saying that now he will pass to another song. Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance In Classical Greece, in the fifth and fourth centuries BC and perhaps earlier a rhapsode (ῥαψῳδός was a professional Performer of Poetry, especially A thirty-fourth, To Hosts is not a hymn, but a reminder that hospitality is a sacred duty enjoined by the gods, a pointed reminder when coming from a professional rhapsode.

Gods who have Homeric hymns dedicated to them include:

• Aphrodite
• Apollo
• Ares
• Asclepius
• Artemis
• Athena
• Cybele
• Dionysus
• Demeter
• The Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces
• Gaia
• Helios
• Hera
• Heracles
• Hermes
• Hephaestus
• Hestia
• Pan
• Poseidon
• Pythian Apollo
• Selene
• Zeus

Notes

External links

• English etext of the Homeric Hymns Translation by H. G. Evelyn-White at Perseus. Annotated with links to proper names, Greek text, etc.
• English etext of the Homeric Hymns at the Berkeley Sunsite
• Introduction to the Homeric Hymns A condensed version of the introduction by Diane J. Rayor, The Homeric Hymns : A Translation, with Introduction and Notes (2004)

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